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Home , John Owen (Royalist), John Owen (theologian), Peter Toon, Sinclair Ferguson, William Orme (minister)

E n d o r s e m e n t s

“Some of us who fell in love with ’s writings did so, to some significant measure, because of the enthusiastic endorsement given by . For me, after more than thirty-five years of gospel ministry, it would be difficult to exaggerate the impor- tance of Owen’s theological and pastoral insights. But we have long been in need of an updated biography—not simply one that narrates the significant details of his life, but one that analyzes the contours of his theological insights and how they shaped and defined him. And no one is better placed to do that than Sinclair Ferguson. I suspect that many of us, when engaging in word-association, pro- vide the name ‘Ferguson’ when ‘John Owen’ is mentioned. “I cannot overstate the importance of this volume. I fully expect it to become a best-seller among those who appreciate Owen—and deservedly so.” —Derek W.H. Thomas Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Columbia S.C. Robert Strong Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Reformed Theological Seminary, Atlanta

“This is now the prime book I will be recommending on John Owen. I am very impressed, but not surprised: Sinclair Ferguson has so imbibed the spirit of Owen that he conveys the thought and heart of the great man with limpid clarity. This means that this book is far more than an introduction to Owen; it is at the same time a rich and deeply affecting meditation on communion with our glorious, triune God. Here is a feast of angel’s food.” —Michael Reeves Director of Union and Senior Lecturer Evangelical School of Theology, Bridgend, Wales “Let me begin by echoing Sinclair Ferguson’s own story: John Owen, more than any other theologian of the past, has pro- foundly shaped my vision of the triune God and what it means to live in the wonder of the gospel. In this delightful little book, Ferguson offers a sort of expert paraphrase and appreciation of Owen’s classic volume Communion with God. Along the way, he gives us a great gift: in your hands is now a beautifully accessible tour of Owen’s approach to the spiritual life, by which he means a life secure in the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the strong fellowship of the Spirit. Read, savor, and be refreshed, for neither Owen nor Ferguson will disappoint.” —Kelly M. Kapic Professor of Theological Studies Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Ga.

“Reading this book is like listening in on a conversation between one of the most trusted voices from the past and one of the most trusted voices in the present. In fact, that’s exactly what this book is. And as you listen in, you will hear the arc of the conver- sation bend in one constant direction. You will hear these two voices remind you of the glorious truth that the Christian life is communion with the Triune God.” —Stephen J. Nichols President, Reformation Bible College, Sanford, Fla. Chief Academic Officer, Ligonier Ministries A Long Line of Godly Men Profile

The Trinitarian Devotion of John Owen Sinclair B. Fergu son The Trinitarian Devotion of John Owen © 2014 by Sinclair B. Ferguson Published by Reformation Trust Publishing A division of Ligonier Ministries 421 Ligonier Court, Sanford, FL 32771 Printed in Crawfordsville, Indiana RR Donnelley and Sons October 2014 First edition All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher, Reformation Trust Publishing. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. Cover illustration: Steven Noble Interior design and typeset: Katherine Lloyd, The DESK

All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ferguson, Sinclair B. The Trinitarian devotion of John Owen / Sinclair B. Ferguson. pages cm. -- (A long line of godly men profile) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-56769-403-1 -- ISBN 1-56769-403-9 1. Trinity--History of doctrines. 2. Owen, John, 1616-1683. 3. Church history--17th century. I. Title. BT109.F47 2014 231’.044--dc23 2014017012 To Alistair Begg

ὁ ἀγαπητὸς ἀδελφὸς καὶ πιστὸς διάκονος καὶ σύνδουλος ἐν κυρίῳ —Colossians 4:7 Table of Contents

Foreword Followers Worthy to be Followed. ix Preface The Christian’s Greatest Privilege. xiii

Chapter 1 and Theologian. 1 • Early Life • New Beginnings • Stepping onto the National Stage • and Cromwell—Again • The Restoration and the Ejection • Faithful to the End Chapter 2 In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 27 • A Neglected Truth • Owen’s Answers • On the Trinity • The Living God Chapter 3 Communion with the Father . 43 • The Centrality of Love • Making Distinctions • Soul Sickness and Gospel Medicine • The Reception and Return of Love Chapter 4 Communion with the Son. 61 • Grace and Justification • Communion with Christ in Personal Grace • Affectionate Communion • Our Worth in His Sight • Communion with Christ in Purchased Grace • Christ Continues as a Priest Forever • The Privileges of Communion with Christ • The Great Exchange • The Habit of Grace • Adoption—Our Highest Privilege Chapter 5 Communion with the Holy Spirit. 99 • The Forgotten Person • Christ and the Spirit • Christ Gives His Spirit • Receiving the Spirit • Communion with the Holy Spirit • Distinguishing the Spirit from the Serpent • Sealed with the Spirit • Our Returns Conclusion Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 125

Bibliography. 129 Scripture Index. 133 Subject Index . 135 F o r e w o r d

Followers Worthy to be Followed

own through the centuries, God has raised up a long Dline of godly men whom He has mightily used at stra- tegic moments in church history. These valiant individuals have come from all walks of life, from the ivy-covered halls of elite schools to the dusty back rooms of tradesmen’s shops. They have arisen from all points of this world, from highly visible venues in densely populated cities to obscure hamlets in remote places. Yet despite these differences, these pivotal figures have had much in common. Each man possessed an unwavering faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but more than that, each of these stalwarts of the faith held deep convictions in the God-exalting truths known as the doctrines of grace. Though they differed in secondary matters of theology, they nevertheless stood shoulder to shoul- der in championing these biblical teachings that magnify the

ix The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen sovereign grace of God in salvation. These spiritual leaders upheld the foundational truth that “salvation is of the Lord.”1 Any survey of church history reveals that those who have embraced these Reformed truths have been granted extraor- dinary confidence in their God. Far from paralyzing these spiritual giants, the doctrines of grace kindled within their hearts a reverential awe for God that humbled their souls before His throne. The truths of divine sovereignty embold- ened these men to rise up and advance the cause of Christ on the earth. With an enlarged vision for the expansion of His kingdom upon the earth, they stepped forward boldly to accomplish the work of ten, even twenty men. They arose with wings like eagles and soared over their times. The doc- trines of grace empowered them to serve God in their divinely appointed hour of history, leaving a godly inheritance for future generations. This Long Line of Godly Men Profiles series highlights key figures in the agelong procession of these sovereign-grace men. The purpose of this series is to explore how these fig- ures used their God-given gifts and abilities to impact their times and further the kingdom of heaven. Because they were wholly devoted followers of Christ, their examples are worthy of emulation today. This volume, written by my good friend Sinclair Fer- guson, focuses upon the man regarded as the greatest of the English Puritan theologians, John Owen. The monumental

1 Ps. 3:8; Jonah 2:9.

x Followers Worthy to be Followed life of Owen was marked by his superior intellectual achieve- ment. He became a pastor, chaplain to , and vice-chancellor of the . His most influ- ential work, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647), written when Owen was only thirty-one years old, is an extended reflection on the intra-Trinitarian life of God in the incarnation and atonement of Jesus Christ. This seminal vol- ume launched Owen on a path of Trinitarian meditation and reflection. He left behind rich treatises and sermons on the Trinitarian communion that a Christian can enjoy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Perhaps no other English theo- logian has spent more time in contemplation of the eternal Godhead, and Owen’s study translated into a zealous passion for the gospel and devotion to Christ. John Owen stands as a towering figure, eminently worthy to be profiled in this series. May the Lord use this book to raise up a new generation of believers who will bring the gospel message to bear upon this world. Through this profile, may you be strengthened to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. May you be zealous in your devotion to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the glory of His name and advance of His kingdom. Soli Deo gloria! —Steven J. Lawson Series editor

xi P r ef a c e

The Christian’s Greatest Privilege

am grateful to my friend Steve Lawson for his invitation I to contribute to the Long Line of Godly Men Profiles series, which he both devised and continues to edit. Invitation is probably too weak a word to describe his desire that this excellent series contain a volume on John Owen. I suspect he knew that, for me, writing on Owen would be something of a personal experience. For his insistence, encouragement, and friendship, I am deeply grateful. Writing The Trinitar- ian Devotion of John Owen has turned me back once more to reflect on the life and ministry of a truly great and godly man, one to whom I owe a huge personal debt. John Owen lived from 1616 to 1683. Many of his works were published during his lifetime and a number were pub- lished soon thereafter. Two different collections of his writings appeared in the nineteenth century. But by the middle of the

xiii The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen twentieth century, both his name and his books had fallen into virtual obscurity. In the providence of God, Owen’s Works began to be republished in 1965.1 At that time, I had just turned seventeen and was in my first year at university. My tuition fees, all living expenses, and more were covered by scholarships and—happy days—there was even money left over to buy books. Slightly damaged copies of the massive volumes of Owen’s Works (they average around six hundred pages each) could be purchased for the equivalent of a dollar or so each. I bought them one by one, sometimes two by two, until I owned a complete set. And I began to read. Owen’s style is usually regarded as notoriously difficult. Latin was virtually his first language. His education was in Latin; he lectured in Latin; he wrote in Latin. He probably dreamed in Latin. Not surprisingly, his English style is heavily Latinate. Yet, as I have been writing this book, it has dawned on me that God’s providence had already prepared me to keep read- ing. As I stood on the verge of a university education, I felt very unsure of what to expect, or whether a degree was even within my intellectual power to attain. No one in my family line, as far as I knew, had ever gone to university. In those days, places were scarce. For my parents, who had both left school in their

1. The republished Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ in 1959 and then from 1965 to 1968 reprinted the 1850–53 edition of his complete works edited by W.H. Goold, with the exception of his Latin writings. In 1991, the Trust then reprinted Owen’s massive commentary on Hebrews, which had been published in the Goold edition in 1854–55.

xiv The Christian’s Greatest Privilege very early teens, university studies would have been beyond their wildest aspirations. But they were deeply committed to encouraging their sons to understand the importance of edu- cation. There was no discussion, as far as I can remember, about whether we would study Latin. It was a key to further education, and therefore nonnegotiable. Little could my father and mother have imagined that the guidance they gave their eleven-year-old son would make it much easier for him, some six years later, to read the greatest, if possibly the most diffi- cult, of all the seventeenth-century English theologians. And so I kept reading. Of course, some of Owen’s works were of greater interest to me than others. But then, some of them contained material that had probably first been preached to college students my own age. Owen stretched my mind, analyzed my soul, taught me theological devotion, and prescribed spiritual medicine. Theologically and pastorally, he helped shape what I thought a minister of the gospel should know, believe, and preach. He showed me how to think through the gospel and its application. Owen’s assistant, David Clarkson (no mean theologian himself), said in his funeral sermon, “I need not tell you of this who knew him, that it was his great design to promote holiness in the life and exercise of it among you.”2 Just as Owen’s writings had done that for others, so they did it for me, encouraging me to think and live for the glory of God.

2. The Works of John Owen, ed. Thomas Russell, 21 vols. (: Robert Baynes, 1826), 1:420.

xv The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

Thus, this seventeenth-century Oxford academic and minister has been one of the most significant influences on my life. I am profoundly grateful for him—and for the way he used his gifts for the church of Christ in the stressful days in which he lived. He surely never could have dreamed that, three centuries after his death, his work would nourish a teenage boy who hoped to follow his example and become a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So—although it may not be immediately apparent to readers of the pages that follow—Dr. Lawson was right in thinking that this little book would mean something quite personal to me. For it gives me the privilege of introducing Owen to some who may never have heard his name, much less read his works. In particular, it provides an opportunity to say something about the enormous importance and relevance of a central theme in his theology. This theme can, I think, be summed up in the following way. There is nothing in all the world more important to you than these truths:

(1) God is Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a great mystery—because we are not God and we cannot fully under- stand the sheer, wonderful, glorious mystery of His being. But we can begin to grasp it, and learn to love and adore Him.

(2) If you are a Christian, it is because of the loving thought and action of each person of the Trinity. The Father, along

xvi The Christian’s Greatest Privilege with the Son and the Spirit, planned it before the foundation of the world; the Son came to pay the price for your redemp- tion and, supported by the Holy Spirit, became obedient to His Father in your place, both in His life and death, to bring you justification before God; and now, by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit sent by both the Father and the Son, you have been brought to faith.

(3) The greatest privilege any of us can have is this: we can know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can enjoy fel- lowship—what Owen calls “communion”—with God. This knowledge is as rich, wide, deep, long, and high as are the three persons of God. Knowing Him and having fellowship with Him is an entire world of endless knowledge, trust, love, joy, fellowship, pleasure, and satisfaction.

This is what John Owen wanted Christians to know. The Trinitarian Devotion of John Owen is only a beginning point in explaining what all this means. But I hope it will be a beginning without an ending. Every author is a debtor. In addition to my debt to Steve Lawson for his invitation, I am grateful to the wonderful staff of Ligonier Ministries and Reformation Trust for their encour- agement and support. In a special way, I want to express my thanks to my wife, Dorothy. We met the same year I first met The Works of John Owen. Wherever we have gone, Owen has come with us. I have often seen in her what Owen taught

xvii The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen about the Christian’s “returns” to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in a life lived in practical devotion to Him. It is from within this context of her faithfulness to me and her love for our family that these pages come. I pray that they might stimulate in you a richer experience of the Trinitarian devo- tion that John Owen both tasted and taught. —Sinclair B. Ferguson Carnoustie, March 2014

xviii C h a p t e r O n e

Pastor and Theologian

A pastor, a scholar, a divine of the first magnitude; holi- ness gave a divine luster to his other accomplishments, it shined in his whole course, and was diffused through his whole conversation.1 —David Clarkson, funeral sermon for John Owen, September 4, 1683

he year of his birth—1616—was the year of William TShakespeare’s death. When he was only thirty-three years old, he preached before the English Parliament. It was not for the first time, but on this occasion, King Charles I had been publicly executed less than twenty-four hours before. At the age of thirty-six, he was appointed to be vice-chancellor

1. , God’s Statesman: The Life and Work of John Owen (Exeter, : Paternoster Press, 1971), p. 173.

1 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen of the University of Oxford (in American terms, the president) by the English general and future Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. In 1662, along with around two thousand other minis- ters, he was ejected from the for refusing to conform to the use of the in church services. Thereafter, under the threat of arrest, he served as the pas- tor of Nonconformist congregations. During the last period of his life, he pastored a congregation in London. He died in 1683, leaving behind him a legacy of writings that now occupy twenty-four large volumes averaging around six hundred pages each. His name was John Owen. In his own time, he was England’s greatest living theologian. Now, more than three hundred years after his death, many still regard him as such. But who was he?

E a r ly L i fe

John Owen was born in Stadham (now Stadhampton), about ten miles southeast of Oxford. His father, Henry, was the minister of the local congregation.2 He had an older brother, William (who also became a minister3), and two younger brothers, Henry (who entered the military) and Philemon

2. Owen Sr. later became minister at Harpsden, and he died there on September 18, 1649. He is buried in the chancel of the church. 3. William was minister in Ewelme in Oxfordshire and died in 1660 at age forty-eight.

2 Pastor and Theologian

(who was killed while on military duty in in 1649), and a sister whose name is unknown.4 The Owens were a Puritan family. “I was bred up from my infancy under the care of my father,” Owen wrote, “who was a Nonconformist all his days, and a painful [hard-working] labourer in the vineyard of the Lord.”5 Scholars have long debated what constitutes a “Puritan.” The term describes a wide variety of individuals, ranging from Anglicans who simply wanted to see the Church of England purified from some of its unbiblical features to individuals who, in their opposition to the Church of England, stood on the margins of Christian orthodoxy. Henry Owen, as his son John would later do, stood in the mainstream of bibli- cal orthodoxy and was perhaps concerned only to see biblical guidelines followed in the worship and governance of the church. In any event, he was a faithful gospel minister and father. As Calvin said of Timothy, so we could say of Owen: he “sucked in godliness with his mother’s milk.”6 Having received his early education from his father, when he was around ten years old, thanks to a generous uncle, both he and his elder brother, William, were sent to a small school

4. She married John Hartcliffe, minister of Harding in Oxfordshire and later canon of Windsor. He died in 1702. 5. The Works of John Owen, ed. W.H. Goold, 24 vols. (, Scotland: 1850–53; repr. London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1966), 13:224. Subsequent citations of Owen’s Works refer to this edition. 6. John Calvin, Commentary on 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, ed. D.W. and T.F. Torrance, trans. T.A. Smail (Edinburgh, Scotland: Oliver and Boyd, 1964), p. 292.

3 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen in Oxford to prepare for entry to Queen’s College in Oxford University. Students at Oxford in the seventeenth century were by and large either gentlemen or scholars, but rarely both. In many ways, the university served as a kind of educational finishing school for the upper classes, many of whom would neither take exams nor graduate. Owen, however, entered the univer- sity with a view to study, and he graduated with a bachelor of arts alongside his brother in 1632, at age fifteen or sixteen. In essence, the bachelor’s degree was merely preparatory to the master’s degree studies that followed. He duly graduated with a master of arts in 1635. Owen’s education was classical: logic, philosophy, mathe- matics, ancient history, astronomy, Greek, and Hebrew. Latin was the lingua franca of the academic world (from college ser- mons to lectures and debates). Against that background, it is perhaps not surprising that Owen had as much facility in Latin as in English—indeed, perhaps more, since much of his written English scarcely masks its deep Latin influences. Clearly, Owen benefited enormously from his studies. He had an outstandingly able academic tutor in .7 And he did not neglect the Latin maxim mens sana in corpore

7. has underscored various ways in which Owen’s education and thinking may have been directly influenced by Barlow (1607–91), who, although he conformed and became bishop of Lincoln, remained a lifelong friend of Owen. See Carl R. Trueman, John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man (Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2007), especially chapter 2.

4 Pastor and Theologian sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body8). He ran, threw jav- elin, and enjoyed playing the flute (he later appointed his teacher Thomas Wilson to the chair of music in the univer- sity). Clearly, he was a serious student, and he disciplined himself to the extent that he often took only four hours of sleep.9 On graduation, Owen’s intention was to engage in the prolonged studies required to attain the bachelor of divinity degree (then a seven-year program). But Oxford University had fallen under influences alien to Owen’s Puritan background. had been appointed university chancellor in 1630 en route to becoming archbishop of Canterbury some three years later. King Charles I had already forbidden debates on the Calvinistic themes of election and predestination, and Laud followed this through with the catholicizing of the ethos of college life and the reintroduction of high liturgy in chapel worship, all mingled with Arminian theology. The signs did not look auspicious for a Puritan student in divinity, and after a further two years of study, Owen left to become family chaplain and tutor in the home of Sir Rob- ert Dormer in Ascot, shortly thereafter accepting a similar position in the house of Lord Lovelace at Hurley. Here, pre- sumably, his duties were not onerous, and he had leisure to continue his studies. Lord Lovelace, however, was a supporter

8. The expression appears to have been first used by the Roman satirist Juvenal, Sat- ires, 10.356. 9. Like others before and since, when in ill health in later life, Owen regretted the punishment he had given his physical resources as a younger man.

5 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen of the king in the building conflict with Parliament, and in 1642, Owen moved on to take up residence in London.

N e w B e g i n n i n g s

The year Owen arrived in London, the broke out.10 Now in the capital, Owen was able to follow the crucial events of the day firsthand. More important, however, was a more personal experience that was to change his life permanently. By all accounts, Owen developed into a warm and genial individual. But he rarely gives himself away in his writings. If he kept journals, as many did, they were presum- ably destroyed at the time of his death. But what seems clear at this stage in his life—he was then in his mid-twenties—is that while he was committed to Puritan principles, he had no settled assurance that he belonged to Christ. On occasion in his published works, he gives scarcely veiled hints that he experienced deep spiritual distress. One Sunday in 1642, he went with his cousin to hear the celebrated Presbyterian minister Edmund Calamy preach at St. Mary’s, Aldermanbury. But Calamy was unable to preach, and his substitute was a little-known minister. Despite his

10. The First and Second Civil Wars (1642–45 and 1648–49) were part of a prolonged conflict between the English Parliament and Charles I, and came to a climax with the execution of Charles on January 30, 1649. A Third Civil War (1649–51) saw the replacement of the monarchy by a Commonwealth (1649–53) and from 1653–59 by the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. On the failure of Cromwell’s son Richard, the monarchy was restored by the English Parliament in 1660.

6 Pastor and Theologian cousin’s prompting, Owen had no heart to go elsewhere. As a result, he heard a sermon on Christ’s words to the disciples after the calming of the storm: “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”11 He was immediately brought into a new sense of peace and assurance. The imagery of the text, as we shall see, would later echo throughout his writings. Later that same year, he began his career as an author with the publication of a polemical work, A Display of Arminian- ism.12 The book was dedicated to the Committee of Religion, which had begun its work as a kind of theological watchdog two years earlier. In turn, the committee appointed him the following year to serve the church at Fordham in . Now settled in pastoral ministry, Owen met and married Mary Rooke, who would bear him eleven children, only one of whom survived into adulthood. By 1646, however, his ministry at Fordham came to an end. His original appoint- ment had been the result of the sequestration of the previous incumbent. Now the appointment of his successor reverted to the original (and non-Puritan) patron. But John Owen had already come to public attention. He had recently been invited to preach before Parliament.13 Now he was appointed to serve the congregation of St. Peter’s, , also in the county of Essex.14 This was a large

11. Matt. 8:26. 12. In Works 10:1–137. 13. On April 29, 1646. His sermon is reprinted in Works 8:2ff. 14. On August 18, 1646.

7 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen congregation that had recently enjoyed the distinguished ministry of .15 Here, Owen both minis- tered within the parish church and also gathered a fellowship along Congregationalist lines. His thinking had now devel- oped from the more Presbyterian perspective he had earlier adopted when he had written The Duty of and People Distinguished16 for his Fordham congregation. Owen employed a wise and good principle whenever he thought through any controversial issue: he studied the stron- gest and best exposition of the view he opposed. In the case of church government, he had read the Congregationalist ’s book The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and found it convinced him.17 His precise views in later life have been debated, but the indications are that he held to something like a loose form of Presbyterian-Congregationalism that both recognized that a congregation is the church in any particular place, yet, as such, wisely consults with other congregations in matters of common interest or concern.18

15. Sedgwick (1600–58) had also been a student at Queen’s College, Oxford, and would later serve as a member of the Westminster Assembly. 16. In Works 13:3ff. 17. John Cotton, who was minister in both , Lincolnshire, and later in Boston, Massachusetts, was one of the most significant and influential figures in the Puritan Brotherhood. Owen’s account of his change in ecclesiology is found in Works 13:222–23. 18. The author of the first (anonymous) Memoir of Owen noted, “I heard him say, before a person of quality and others, he could readily join with Presbytery as it was exer- cised in Scotland.” Cited in Andrew Thomson, Life of Dr Owen, in Works 1:XCVIII.

8 Pastor and Theologian

S t epp i n g o n to t h e N at i o n a l S tag e

As events in the Civil War began to move inexorably to their climax, Owen found himself further caught up into national life. At the same time, his career began to intersect with that of Oliver Cromwell, the charismatic general who would later rule as lord protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. In the summer of 1648, the nearby city of Colchester19 was under siege by General and the Parlia- mentarians’ New Model Army. Owen was invited to preach to the troops20 and became a personal friend of some of the offi- cers, including , Cromwell’s son-in-law.21 Step by step, Owen was becoming a public figure. The next year, as we have seen, he preached before Parlia- ment the day after Charles I’s execution.22 Rather than engaging in triumphalism, Owen instead preached on the call to humil- ity and steadfastness in the face of suffering. Three months after that momentous occasion, he was invited to preach before Par- liament once again,23 with Cromwell in the congregation.

19. The towns are some ten miles apart. 20. His sermons on Habakkuk 3:1–9 were later published as one under the title Ebenezer: A Memorial of the Deliverance of Essex County, and Committee; in Works 8:73. 21. Owen would later preach his funeral sermon in 1651. See Works 8:345–63. 22. Printed in Works 8:127–62. Owen has been both vilified and praised for his ser- mon. Perhaps the most striking feature of it is its total lack of specific reference to the events of the previous day. The sermon was, however, considered worthy to be publicly burned at Oxford on July 21, 1683, within weeks of his death. 23. This sermon, The Shaking and Translating of Heaven and Earth, is found in Works 8:244ff.

9 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

The following day, Owen visited the home of General Fairfax. While Owen waited to be seen, Cromwell and a num- ber of his officers arrived. Recognizing Owen, Cromwell put his hand on his shoulder and said, “Sir, you are the man I must be acquainted with.” Owen’s (quick-thinking) response was to say, “That will be much more to my advantage than to yours!” “We shall soon see that!” Cromwell replied. He immediately invited Owen to join him in Ireland and to serve both as his chaplain and as a visitor to Trinity College, Dublin. Owen’s younger brother, Philemon, already served in the army and persuaded him to accept the challenge. Thus, Owen accompanied some twelve thousand psalm-singing soldiers in the New Model Army. Cromwell laid siege to the city of Drogheda, Ireland, which had become the focal point of resistance for Royalist opposition. When it refused to accept terms of surrender, Cromwell’s army showed no quarter in taking the city. Students of history have discussed and debated both the number of civilian casualties and the eth- ics of Cromwell’s action ever since. Owen was almost certainly not an eyewitness of the event, but his intimate knowledge of it stirred him to both high eloquence and passionate appeal when he preached before Parliament on his return:

How is it that Jesus Christ is in Ireland only as a lion staining all his garments with the blood of his enemies; and none to hold him out as a lamb sprinkled with his own blood to his friends?

10 Pastor and Theologian

He pleaded with the members of Parliament, that

the Irish might enjoy Ireland so long as the moon endureth, so that Jesus Christ might possess the Irish. . . . I would that there were for the present one gospel preacher for every walled town in the English posses- sion in Ireland. The land mourneth, and the people perish for want of knowledge. . . . The tears and cries of the inhabitants of Dublin after the manifestations of Christ are ever in my view.24

Later in 1649, Owen became an official preacher at the Palace of Whitehall,25 and the following year he was with Cromwell again, this time on an expedition north of the bor- der to subdue the Scots. Here Owen preached and debated repeatedly—on one occasion, according to local tradition, finding himself at least matched, if not bettered in discussion by the brilliant young theologian and minister . Cromwell was sufficiently impressed to ask for his name, and discovering it was “Binning” (which may have been pro- nounced more like “Bunning”), he commented with a sharp pun, “He hath bound well, indeed” and then, putting hand to sword, added, “But this will loose all again!”26

24. Works 8:235–36. It seems that Owen’s preaching had led to the conversion of some in Dublin. 25. The royal residence in London during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 26. Hugh Binning (1627–53) was minister of Govan (now part of the city of ) and an outstandingly gifted thinker and preacher. Despite his short life, he left a remarkable collection of work, which was published posthumously.

11 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

O x f o r d a n d C r o m w e l l —A g a i n In 1651, Owen became , Oxford, and in September the following year (contrary to Owen’s personal wishes), Cromwell appointed him the university’s vice-chan- cellor (the executive head of the university). He preached regularly in his college and also on alternate Sundays with his friend at St. Mary’s Church.27 When not preaching at St. Mary’s, he seems to have preached to familiar friends at Stadham. It is to a sermon series from this period that we owe one of the books for which Owen is best known today, On the Mor- tification of Sin.28 On reading this paperback-length book for the first time, most contemporary Christians are left feeling they have never read anything quite like it. That impression is deepened by the realization that Owen’s profound spiri- tual analysis is simply the edited version of messages he had preached to a congregation composed, in large measure, of teenage students. Perhaps memories of his own earlier spiri- tual struggles underlined for him how important it is to go deep as early as possible. There are few things more important in the Christian life than learning to overcome sin.

27. Both Owen and Goodwin had been appointed heads of colleges on the same day, June 8, 1649 (Goodwin of Magdalen [pronounced “Modlin”]), and both were awarded the degree doctor of divinity in December 1653. Owen used the title doctor reluctantly. In 1654, he represented Oxford in Parliament (he was presum- ably the best-qualified person to do so) but was forced to withdraw because he was an ordained clergyman. Presumably, as a Nonconformist and an academic rather than strictly speaking a pastor, Owen was not governed by the regulation forbidding ministers from serving as members of Parliament. 28. Works 6:1–86.

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We all have in our mind’s eye a picture of a Puritan. It is often a distorted one.29 Owen apparently did not resemble the dark misrepresentation. Indeed, the contemporary cari- cature of him—however overdrawn it may have been by his enemies—actually demeaned him by drawing him in bright colors. According to Anthony Wood’s famous description, he

instead of being a grave example to the University, scorned all formality, undervalued his office by going in quirpo like a young scholar, with powdered hair, snakebone bandstrings, lawn bands, a very large set of ribbons pointed at his knees, and Spanish leather boots with large lawn tops, and his hat mostly cock’d.30

Yet even Wood was forced to acknowledge, doubtless with a touch of cynicism:

His personage was proper and comely and he had a very graceful behaviour in the pulpit, an eloquent elocution, a winning and insinuating deportment, and could, by the persuasion of his oratory . . . move and win the affec- tion of his admiring auditory almost as he pleased.31

29. For a helpful corrective, see Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1986). 30. Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxoniensis (London, 1691), 3rd ed., ed. Philip Bliss (London, 1813–20), IV, col. 98. Cited by Thomson, Life of Dr Owen, in Works 1:XLVIII–XLIX. 31. Wood, col. 102. Cited by Toon, God’s Statesman, p. 55.

13 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

Oxford was in a state of disarray at the end of the Civil War. Five of the colleges were deserted; some had been used largely to quarter military personnel. Owen referred to “the despised tears and sobs of our almost dying mother, the Uni- versity.”32 But his administration brought fresh life into the institution, new and distinguished faculty members, and a period in which a variety of influential students would pass through its corridors of learning.33 His major regret from his decade in academia seems to have been that his literary output was not greater. Yet it was during this time that he published several of his most substantial works, including The Doctrine of the Saints’ Perse- verance (1654)—in essence a book review of John Goodwin’s Arminian treatise Redemption Redeemed but one that extends to some 666 pages in the Goold edition of his Works. In a steady stream of literary output, there followed his defense of orthodox Christianity against Socinianism34 in Vindiciae

32. , Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Religious Connexions of John Owen, D.D. (London, 1810), p. 170. 33. Owen’s Fifth Oration, delivered at the university convocation on October 9, 1657, is a wonderful testimony to both his Christian commitment and his administrative abilities. See The Oxford Orations of Dr John Owen, ed. Peter Toon (Callington, Cornwall, England: Gospel Communication, 1971), pp. 40–46. The list of students at Oxford during Owen’s vice-chancellorship include , the philosopher; , founder of Pennsylvania; Christopher Wren, the great architect of the rebuilding of London; Thomas Ken, author of “The Doxology”; and many oth- ers, some of whom would lay the foundations for the Royal Society. Owen certainly held the view that Christians have a cultural mandate to explore God’s creation. 34. was a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century form of what we today would call Unitarianism, named after two of its leaders, Lelio Sozini (1525–62), who knew and corresponded with Calvin, and his nephew Fausto Sozzini (1539–1604; the nephew spelled his name with a double z). Socinianism developed particularly in

14 Pastor and Theologian

Evangelicae (which he dedicated to Cromwell, 1655), Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656), Of Communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (1657), Of (1657), and Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It (1658). He must also have been working on his extensive Latin work Theologoumena Pantodapa (Theology of all kinds, 1661). The reasons for viewing himself as a literary “underachiever” were not sloth or indifference. As he himself hinted, much of his time was taken up with affairs of state. Not only was he called on to preach before Parliament and on other civic occasions, but he also served as one of the “triers” charged with assess- ing fitness for gospel ministry and was frequently consulted by both politicians and pastors, and by Cromwell in particular, on matters of national and ecclesiastical importance.35 He served in a variety of ways as a “negotiator and trouble-shooter.”36

Poland, and its leaders expressed their beliefs in The Racovian Catechism (1605). An English version was produced by and published in 1652. The catechism was burned two years later under Cromwell’s administration. Owen saw Socinianism as a major enemy of the gospel and especially expounded and defended the doctrine of the priesthood of Christ against it. Cf. Sinclair B. Ferguson, intro- duction to The Priesthood of Christ, Its Necessity and Nature, by John Owen (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2010). 35. These gatherings included one convened by Cromwell himself to discuss the ques- tion of the legal residence of Jews in England. Cromwell, partly motivated by a desire for their conversion as well as their widely recognized business acumen, was in favor of allowing the Jews to remain. Owen shared Cromwell’s understanding of Romans 11:25–32, although he resolutely declined to speculate on how it would take place. See Works, 4:440 and also 18:434 (this is volume 1 of his Hebrews commentary). Cromwell made a speech to the Council of State on December 4, 1655, on this subject that one hearer said was “the best speech he ever made.” Antonia Fraser, Cromwell, Our Chief of Men (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975), p. 565. 36. For a full account, see Toon, God’s Statesman, pp. 80–102. Toon’s work remains the most comprehensive modern biography.

15 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

Owen’s star as vice-chancellor would, however, soon be on the wane. The Parliament that had held out so much hope to him of a nation led by genuinely Christian and Reformed leaders had, to his mind, grown spiritually tepid. In particular, Owen was deeply troubled by and opposed to the proposals being aired in 1657 that Cromwell should become king. Cromwell was offered the throne on March 31 and wrestled with the decision for a number of weeks there- after. In early May, he seemed to be on the verge of accepting it when his son-in-law Charles Fleetwood, Thomas Pride (who had signed the death warrant for Charles I), and others approached him personally with their objections. They called Owen into service in order to draw up a petition opposing his enthronement, and Cromwell immediately declined the throne. This marked the end of any royal aspirations Crom- well may have had. It also marked the end of Owen’s ease of access to him and influence on him. More than a decade later, Owen was personally attacked by the Anglican minister George Vernon in A Letter to a Friend concerning some of Dr Owen’s Principles and Practices (1670). Accused of promising Cromwell during his last illness that he would be raised up, Owen replied, “I saw him not in his sickness, nor in some long time before.”37 Although not involved in the installation of Cromwell as lord protector, he does seem to have had some part in Cromwell’s funeral services.

37. Works 16:273–74.

16 Pastor and Theologian

Thus, Owen’s leadership of the university as a whole came to an end in 1657, although he remained as dean of Christ Church until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Despite his differences with the lord protector, Owen’s speech on the occasion of the election of Cromwell’s son, Richard, to the office of chancellor of Oxford abounds in graciousness:

There is no need to expatiate now on his [Oliver Cromwell’s] merits or to recount his benefactions when all are eager to acknowledge their debt to him for all their blessings. . . . Therefore, it is deliberately that I refrain here from giving any formal appraisal of the wisest and most gallant of all the men whom this age, rich in heroes, has produced. In whatever direc- tion England finally moves it will go down to the ages that she had a ruler who had the glory of this island and the respect for religion close to his heart.38

George Vernon also accused Owen of “being the instru- ment in the ruining of his [Oliver Cromwell’s] son” and in the failure of the Protectorate in which he followed his father. Owen was certainly close to a group of men who shared a common desire for a republic rather than a Protectorate (cor- porately described as “the Wallingford House Group” because of their meeting place), but he denied the charge: “with whose

38. Toon, ed., The Oxford Orations of Dr John Owen, p. 47.

17 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

[’s] setting up and pulling down I had no more to do than himself.”39 In October 1658, during his closing years at Oxford, Owen participated in a gathering of representatives of around one hundred Independent churches meeting at the Savoy Pal- ace in London. Here, as an expression of doctrinal unity—and to a degree as a defense against the often-expressed criticism that Independency, in advocating local congregational control and rejecting church hierarchies, was a form of sectarianism that wounded the church of Christ40—the Independents drew up a declaration of faith with a lengthy preface probably largely written by Owen. In great measure, the Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order adopts the text of the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647. Its most substantial changes were in its discussion of repentance (chapter 15); the addition of an entirely new chapter 20: “Of the Gospel, and of the extent of the Grace thereof”; a rewriting of an entire section on the limits of the authority of the magistrate with respect to the church (chapter 24, section 3), and a new writing of sections 2 and 5 in the chapter on the church (chapter 26).

39. Works 16:274. 40. When a copy of the declaration was presented to Richard Cromwell on October 14, 1658, Thomas Goodwin noted in his speech, “We [desired] in the first place to clear ourselves of that scandal, which not only some persons at home, but of foreign parts, have affixed upon us, viz. that Independentism (as they call it) is the sink of all Heresies and .” Quoted by A.G. Matthews in his introduction to The Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order 1658, ed. A.G. Matthews (London: Indepen- dent Press, 1959), p. 12.

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Perhaps the most interesting change in relation to our theme is the way in which chapter 2, “Of God and of the Holy Trinity,” was revised to conclude with these additional words, expressing, as we shall see, a deep Owenian conviction: “Which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our Commu- nion with God, and comfortable Dependence upon him.”41

T h e R e s to r at i o n a n d t h e E j e c t i o n

After the execution of Charles I, Parliament abolished the monarchy and declared England to be a Commonwealth. But after Richard Cromwell failed to continue his father’s success as lord protector, Parliament removed him and restored the monarchy in 1660. King Charles II, son of the king whom Parliament had executed, was crowned on April 23, 1661, at Westminster Abbey. The Restoration ushered in difficult times for Owen and his fellow Nonconformists. A new religious settlement was now put in place and undergirded by the acts of the Clarendon Code, which placed heavy restrictions on Nonconformists:

• The Corporation Act of 1661 prohibited Non- conformists from holding civic office. • The Act of Uniformity of 1662 excluded them from office in the church. This act led to the expulsion of some two thousand ministers from

41. Matthews, p. 79.

19 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

the Church of England, an event known as the . • The Conventicle Act of 1662 made Noncon- formist meetings illegal. • The Five Mile Acts of 1665 prohibited Noncon- formist ministers from living within five miles of any place where they had once ministered.42

Owen declined to conform, and thus, his service to the University of Oxford was brought to an end. He withdrew to his small estate at Stadhampton and sought to continue to minister to gathered groups of believers there and elsewhere, in contravention of the law. He did not lack opportunities to conform (he may well have been offered a bishopric) or to serve elsewhere (he was invited to follow John Cotton at the First Congregational Church of Boston, Massachusetts). He remained with others who suffered for the sake of their conviction. While not exposed to the same privations as some of his brethren, Owen and his family do seem to have moved from one house to another where they would be protected guests. For a man who had moved easily in the corridors of power, these must have been days of profound humiliation. In 1665, England experienced the most severe outbreak of plague since the Black Death struck Europe in the fourteenth

42. The Clarendon Code was named after Edward Hyde, Lord Clarendon, the lord chancellor during whose administration its various laws were enacted, although he was not directly responsible for them. Cf. J.P. Kenyon, Stuart England, 2nd ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1985), pp. 215–16.

20 Pastor and Theologian century. In London, about fifteen percent of the population died, including more than seven thousand in one fateful week. The plague finally ended in 1666, which was also the year of the Great Fire of London. These events were thought by many to be a divine judgment for the treatment of the Non- conformists. In any event, Owen joined many of his Puritan brethren in ministering to the needy in the city. He took this opportunity to plead for toleration in his works Indulgence and Toleration Considered and A Peace Offering (both published in 1667). He continued to work behind the scenes to secure relief for his fellow Independents. Indeed, on one occasion, he was forced to defend his actions for receiving a considerable sum of money from the Duke of York (a Roman Catholic) to alleviate the privation of suffering Dissenters. Although arrested or close to arrest on a number of occasions, he was never imprisoned. Owen knew and greatly esteemed the suffering “Tin- ker-Preacher” , and indeed appears to have been the go-between to make arrangements for his own publisher, Nathaniel Ponder, to publish Bunyan’s great work The Pilgrim’s Progress. According to both Bunyan’s and Owen’s biographers, the king once asked Owen why he so appreciated an uned- ucated tinker like Bunyan, to which he replied, “Could I possess the tinker’s abilities for preaching, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning.”43

43. Toon, God’s Statesman, p. 162.

21 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

F a i t h f u l to t h e E n d

In 1673, the little congregation to which Owen privately ministered united with the church fellowship of which the Westminster Divine had been pastor. During this last decade of Owen’s life, his time would be spent writing, preaching, and giving counsel. His first wife, Mary, died in 1675. He was married again eighteen months later, to Michel, the widow of one Thomas D’Oyley. Her companionship must have filled a great void in his life and at the same time brought much comfort in days of ongoing sickness. Throughout these years, Owen suffered from severe asthma and gallstones, and at times was too sick to preach. He nevertheless continued to publish (almost two dozen items issued from his pen during this last decade). Even in his dying months, he was working on what by any reckoning is a classic work of theology filled with spiritual sensitivity and personal devotion, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ.44 No account of his life, however brief, would be complete without including a section of the letter he wrote to his friend Charles Fleetwood on the day before his death, and a con- versation he had with a colleague on the next morning. To Fleetwood he wrote:

I am going to Him whom my soul hath loved, or rather who hath loved me with an everlasting love;

44. Works 1:273–415.

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which is the whole ground of all my consolation. The passage is very irksome and wearysome through strong pains of various sorts which are all issued in an intermitting fever. All things were provided to carry me to London today attending to the advice of my physician, but we were all disappointed by my utter disability to undertake the journey. I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm, but whilst the great Pilot is in it the loss of a poore under- rower will be inconsiderable. Live and pray and hope and doe not despair; the promise stands invincible that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee.45

How fitting that in almost his last recorded words there should be a final appearance of imagery from the text that had brought him into the assurance of Christ he had now long enjoyed! The next day, he confirmed his sense of assurance with even greater force when William Payne,46 a minister from Saf- fron Waldon, visited to tell him that his Meditations on the Glory of Christ was at that very hour going to press. The dying Owen’s response was memorable: “I am glad to hear it; but O brother Payne! The long wished for day is come at last, in which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever done, or was capable of doing in this world.”47

45. Toon, Correspondence, p. 174. 46. Biographers differ on Payne’s Christian name. Orme gives it as Thomas (p. 448). 47. Thomson, Life of Dr Owen, in Works 1:CIII.

23 The trinitarian Devotion of John Owen

By the evening of that day, August 24, 1683, St. Bar- tholomew’s Day—twenty-one years after the ejection of two thousand ministers from the Church of England in 1662, and on the anniversary of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572, when between five thousand and thirty thousand French Protestants were slaughtered—John Owen was with Christ. On the fourth of September, followed by a long line of stately carriages, his body was taken to , the Nonconformist burial ground then just outside the City of London. There, with the mortal remains of friends and fel- low-laborers in Christ—John Bunyan, David Clarkson (once his assistant), his friend Charles Fleetwood, and many others, the dust of John Owen, pastor of Christ’s flock, preacher of Christ’s gospel, teacher of Christ’s universal church, awaits the glory of the resurrection. There can be no doubt, for all his massive intellect and prodigious self-discipline (how does one man write twenty- four volumes using seventeenth-century writing materials?), that the secret of Owen’s life lay not in his natural gifts but in his deep devotion to God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Perhaps the summary of his life that most matched his own aspirations is found in these words from a defense of Owen’s character and work, Vindication of Owen by a Friendly Scrutiny:

His general frame was serious, cheerful, and discour- sive, his expressions savouring nothing of discontent, much of heaven and love to Christ, and saints, and all

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men; which came from him so seriously and sponta- neously, as if grace and nature were in him reconciled, and but one thing.48

To this day, the words of Thomas Gilbert’s epitaph can be found on his gravestone:

Et, missis Caeteris, Coluit ipse, Sensitque, Beatam quam scripsit, cum Deo Communionem And, with a disregard for other things, he cherished and experienced That blessed communion with God about which he wrote.

To the wonder of this privilege, and to Owen’s unique exposition of it, we now turn.

48. Vindication of Owen by a Friendly Scrutiny, p. 38, cited by Thomson, Life of Dr Owen, in Works I:CIV–CV.

25 About the Author

Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson is professor of systematic theology at Redeemer Theological Seminary in Dallas and dean of the Doctor of Ministry program at the Ligonier Academy of Bib- lical and Theological Studies. He previously served as senior minister of the historic First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C., and also serves as a teaching fellow for Ligonier Ministries. A graduate of the , Scotland, he serves on the council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangeli- cals and is a trustee of the Banner of Truth Trust. Dr. Ferguson is author of more than two dozen books, including In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel-Centered Life, The Holy Spirit, Grow in Grace, and Let’s Study Philippians. His writing interests have ranged from scholarly works to books for children. He has served as minister of two congregations in Scot- land, one on Unst, the most northerly inhabited island in the United Kingdom, and the other in the center of Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. Dr. Ferguson and his wife, Dorothy, have three sons and a daughter.